What We Do: The Fred Hollows Foundation

The Fred Hollows Foundation has a very clear goal – to end avoidable blindness. Every single day we work towards providing high quality eye care to people in disadvantaged communities. This is how we do it.

OUR STRATEGY

The engine that drives our vision is our strategy. Over the course of five years, The Fred Hollows Foundation's 2019-2023 Strategy seeks to build on our success and strengthen our efforts towards realizing a world in which no person is needlessly blind or vision impaired. This is our roadmap to get there.

How We Deliver Impact

Like Fred Hollows himself, we aren’t afraid to roll up our sleeves and do the work, and neither are our partners. Our work on the ground includes a commitment to training and equipping local health care workers so that ongoing eye care is available as a long-term solution. We understand the importance of strengthening health care systems in all the countries where we work, and we will achieve this by engaging and empowering local communities.

ADVOCACY AND INFLUENCING

We’re using our position as a leading international development organization to put eye health on the global agenda. Working in partnership with like-minded organizations, we’re using evidence-based research to affect sustainable change, and challenging governments to do more to ensure everyone can access high quality eye care.

GENDER, EQUITY and Inclusion

We strive to become a leader in delivering evidence-based policy, programming, and advocacy to achieve equity in eye health. We recognize that blindness and vision impairment impact the following groups of people at greater rates: women, older people, displaced peoples, people living with a disability, and people affected by income inequality. To change this, we must find ways to overcome inequity in access to eye health services.

INNOVATION AND RESEARCH

We honour Fred Hollows’ pioneering spirit by investing in better ways to address avoidable blindness around the world. Our innovation and research portfolio will make eye care more effective, affordable, and accessible through investment in new technologies, and pilot cutting-edge approaches to deliver and finance eye care.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a universal commitment to end poverty, protect the environment, and ensure prosperity for all. It is framed by 17 Sustainable Development Goals, six of which we are able to address directly in our sight restoring work. We have committed to applying sustainable development principles in everything we do.

Restoring more than just sight

Chini had been a strong and capable woman, but when cataract took her sight, it also took many of the things that mattered to her – like being able to visit the temple and pray.

Like many Nepali people, Chini couldn't have afforded eye surgery. In developing countries, blindness can impact the whole family. An eye clinic supported by The Fred Hollows Foundation was her only chance to have her sight restored.

See more stories like Chini's on our YouTube channel.